


Sucks to be right

by linndechir



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-29
Updated: 2013-07-29
Packaged: 2017-12-21 17:13:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/902810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/linndechir/pseuds/linndechir
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A common side effect of the drift is that the co-pilots start sleeping with each other, so Stacker wonders if co-piloting with his son is really the brightest idea Herc ever had.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sucks to be right

**Author's Note:**

> Another pacificrimkink fill. I need to get off that kinkmeme because I want to write every single Herc/Chuck prompt over there and I really don't have time for that. ;)

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Stacker's tone made it clear that he was very sure that it wasn't.

Herc let out a resigned sigh. He'd been waiting for that question since the first trials, since he had started looking for a new co-pilot and realised very quickly that the best option, in every regard, seemed to be his son. His son who excelled in every single class, who knew more about Jaegers than most technicians and had simulator stats that made candidates who were years older than him look like incompetent idiots, his son who was more driven and ambitious than anyone else Herc had ever met. And at least according to preliminary scans and tests they seemed to have an exceptionally high drift-compatibility.

“He's the best candidate by far. He's young and inexperienced, of course, but we both know that often works better than when you throw two veterans together who already have too many old habits and memories from previous co-pilots.”

“That's not what I mean.” The way Stacker was looking at him would have intimidated most people, but Herc had known him for years, and hierarchy or not, they were friends more than anything else. Still, he sighed and sat down on one of the chairs in Stacker's office.

“You mean that Chuck and I barely talk, that he spent the last three years telling anyone who asked that he isn't related to me, and that he's made it very clear he will never forgive me for what happened to his mother?” It was more than he had wanted to say, but maybe he had kept all his worries about his son bottled up for far too long, and in a way it felt good to put them into words. He shook his head. “If anything can bring us closer again, it's the drift. And if things don't work out, then there are still other candidates.”

Stacker raised both eyebrows, in an expression that clearly said that he wasn't buying any of this, the look he usually gave Herc when Herc insisted he was perfectly fine, or when he pretended that the only reason he wanted Chuck by his side was because his son was technically the best choice, not because he didn't really trust anyone else to keep the boy safe.

“That is _not_ what I mean.”

Herc frowned, confused by the pointedly meaningful look on Stacker's face, then jumped up when he finally realised what his friend might mean.

“Oh please, tell me you aren't serious! He's my son!”

Stacker raised his hands in a gesture of pacification, but he didn't back off.

“And I'm not saying you want to do anything you shouldn't. But I'm sure neither did the Becket brothers or any other sibling team before they started drifting. It is a very common side effect. The shared memories, the mind-meld, it is almost impossible to keep any sexual thoughts out of that bond. Even when the co-pilots are not in love with each other, such a high level of intimacy –”

“Don't lecture me,” Herc snapped, too angry to feel sorry for taking that tone with his oldest friend. If anyone else had suggested this to him, he would have punched them without batting an eyelash. “I know all about the psychological side effects, but I'm sure if there had been any other parent-child-teams before, this particular side effect would not have occurred with them.”

Stacker didn't say anything, but he didn't look convinced. Herc kept glaring at him; the very thought sickened him to the core, no matter how much he knew that some sort of sexual tension seemed to exist between most co-pilots. He himself hadn't actually slept with most of the people he had worked with, but there had always been dreams, fantasies, awkward moments when something almost happened, and he knew that most pilots – knowing that there was a good chance they wouldn't survive the next fight, and that it was almost impossible to have any serious relationship as long as you were still drifting with someone else – didn't bother to refrain from acting on those desires. But this was different.

“Chuck and I aren't siblings, nor are we hormonal 20-year-olds,” he went on. “He's fifteen years old, for God's sake.”

“All I'm saying is that those kinds of thoughts or dreams would only make things worse between you two, Herc. There would be no turning back from that.” Stacker's voice was gentle enough, but it did little to calm Herc down.

“It won't be an issue,” he said sharply, and Stacker never mentioned it again.

~ ~ ~

Three years passed and neither the drift nor their stellar battle record changed anything about how distant Herc and Chuck were with each other. Where most co-pilots seemed to grow closer with every passing day, the Hansens never seemed to touch each other, they barely even talked about anything other than Jaegers and battle tactics, and most of the time the only thing that seemed to bring them together outside of work was their dog. Eventually Stacker wondered how he could have seriously considered the idea that these two would ever be attracted to each other, no matter how often they drifted together.

Until he almost ran into them in a dark corridor by the gym, so early in the morning that he hadn't expected anyone else to be awake – and neither had they, it seemed –, saw them standing there in sweat-soaked gym clothes, Chuck crowding his father against the wall, for once without even an ounce of hostility in his demeanour, with Herc's hands at the back of Chuck's neck to keep him close, their foreheads leaning against each other in something that would have looked like an uncharacteristic display of parental tenderness, if not for Chuck's hand on Herc's hip, slipping under his shirt as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

“We've still got over an hour until there's any breakfast at the mess hall,” Chuck said so softly Stacker barely heard him even in the quiet of the empty corridor. “Your room?”

Stacker saw Herc nod, and he turned around to leave as quickly as he could without making any noise – before he ended up seeing anything else he didn't want to see. For once he couldn't even take any pleasure in knowing that he had been right to worry all those years ago.


End file.
